Jim Krusoe - The Sleep Garden

Episode One, The Burrow , Scene Seven

All the residents of the Burrow stand at the front door, which is a heavy-looking brown slab with numerous bolts and a large brass handle. No one dares to make a move, but MADELINE holds a recipe file, and JEFFERY has a copy of his script, still in progress, tucked under his arm. RAYMOND cradles the decoy of a redhead duck, while VIKTOR clutches a CD that, according to MADELINE, contains a list of his bank accounts. He also has a sock filled with marbles. HEATHER holds a music box with a ballerina on top. It’s empty, but it’s the place she imagines one day she will hide her most precious object in, as soon as it comes along.

Jeffery:

Is everyone ready? This shouldn’t take long, and then we’ll know.

Viktor:

Come on! It’s taken too long already. Let’s get it over with. I don’t have all day. I have other things to do.

VIKTOR strides to the door and turns the knob. Then he stops, a look of puzzlement on his face.

Viktor:

It looks like it’s stuck.

Jeffery:

Okay. So let’s see.

JEFFERY walks to the door, turns the knob, and pushes his shoulder against it. He pulls it toward him, just to be sure, but there is nothing happening in that direction, either.

Jeffery:

It

is

stuck. Raymond, you want to come over and give us a hand here?

RAYMOND gives his decoy to MADELINE to hold and runs at the door, hitting it with his shoulder. It doesn’t move. All of them, even HEATHER, begin to push against it, but the door remains shut.

Madeline:

My Lord. I didn’t think it was possible, but you may be right, Jeffery! I heard you, but, honestly, I didn’t think there was a chance in hell that something like this could be happening. So what are we going to do now?

Jeffery:

I wish I knew. Let me think. Wait. Whoever or whatever is keeping us here is also bringing us food, and dropping off those chunks of wood for Raymond to carve, right? So it must mean they don’t hate us. But it must also mean there has to be a way into the Burrow besides this door.

Madeline:

Yes, that’s it? Somewhere there

must

be an extra door, maybe one that’s hidden. That’s what we have to find!

Heather:

But where do we start to look? It can’t be in one of our rooms, or someone would have noticed people coming and going. Can anyone think of a place where there isn’t someone hanging around 24/7, a place where a person could enter and exit unnoticed?

Everyone looks at one another, each coming to the exact same conclusion.

All:

The kitchen.

The Captain stands in his kitchen, preparing a fruit smoothie with some bran for extra fiber to help regulate his bowels, when suddenly the image of that young man in the lumberjack shirt, the one who brought up that stupid Mellow Valley incident, pops unbidden into his mind — Plaidman. What is his game? The Captain wonders. The man looked familiar in a way. Could he be the son of some old shipmate, or possibly the jealous boyfriend of one of those women who were having such a pleasant time taking a shower together on that day until the rest of the cast and the police with their unnecessarily wailing sirens burst into that idyllic moment? Did Heather have a boyfriend he hadn’t heard about? Could such a person still be out for revenge after all those years? If so, why hasn’t the man surfaced earlier? Is it possible that he has become permanently unhinged by grief after being spurned by Heather, and this is his pathetic attempt to worm his way back into her favor? Or, deranged from the very beginning, the man’s mental illness had been held in check by one or more stays in a hospital for the criminally insane and liberal doses of psychotropic medication, but now that he’s been released, he is out for blood and he doesn’t care whom he strikes?

On the other hand, could this young-appearing man be part of the same plot that was set in motion by those unnamed intelligence agencies so long ago, the ones bent on embarrassing him regarding the women, the same ones who might well be digging holes in his front lawn? Is Plaidman as young as he seems, or has his appearance been altered through cosmetic surgery — and actual cosmetics as well — to throw the Captain off his guard? Is the beard part of a disguise? Damage Control, he remembers they called it back in the days of tradecraft. Is the man an agent? Or, for that matter, suppose the man is the son of one of his old enemies, possibly the Swede, or the Ukrainian, who, disposed of long ago off Trieste, now seeks to avenge his father?

The Captain feels his Death Quotient rising again, and in a way, it feels good.

Episode One, The Burrow , Scene Eight

EVERYONE is gathered in the kitchen once again, but this time no one is sitting; no one is fidgeting. They stand in a rough circle around the kitchen table.

Madeline:

So here we are. Where do we start?

Jeffery:

Well, I’ve never been in a situation like this, but why don’t we all start looking for a secret door or passage. Okay, everybody start by checking the cabinets. Maybe one of them has a door or hallway behind it that leads to the outside world.

There is a flurry of door openings and closings, and often the same door is opened and shut two or three times, as people forget what’s been checked and what hasn’t. In the midst of all of this, RAYMOND stands unmoving.

Viktor:

Nothing. Not a thing.

RAYMOND walks absently to the stove and turns on the burners.

Viktor:

There won’t be anything there, for Christ’s sake. That’s a stove. Why are you turning on the stove? What the fuck are you doing, Duck Man? Have you lost your mind?

Madeline:

Duck Man? Is that what you think? You watch yourself, Viktor.

RAYMOND stands where he is and begins to open and close the oven door of the stove, as if listening for something. He repeats this several times.

Viktor:

For Christ’s sake.

Raymond:

There’s a draft.

Heather:

A what?

Raymond:

A draft. There’s a draft coming from the stove.

Jeffery:

Let’s see.

JEFFERY walks to the stove and feels above and below it. Then he puts his fingers to the side of the mirror above and behind the stove, and the mirror swings open, on hinges like a door’s, exposing a large hole in the wall behind it. The hole is about two feet high, and maybe three feet wide.

Jeffery:

Mystery solved.

Madeline:

So what do you want to do?

Jeffery:

What do you mean? I’d say we don’t have a choice. Obviously this tunnel, or whatever it is, leads somewhere. Even if we decide to come back, we’d better see where it goes before we figure out for sure if we’re trapped or not. This could be a dead end.

Viktor:

Maybe one of you should explore it.

Madeline:

What do you mean, “one of you”? I say we all stick together. It’s our only chance.

Viktor:

I meant one of

you.

Listen, I don’t need to explain myself to you, and I’m certainly not afraid, or anything like that. I just changed my mind, that’s all. I’m staying. Whatever you find out has nothing to do with me. I have my work to do; unlike the rest of you, I have a business to maintain.